The Master (Almost) Sweeps Venice – But Maybe Not?

Turns out the jury awarded The Master their top prize but then the prize was yanked. Read the full story on the HR. However, there is some dispute as to whether or not this is true. Officially, the Golden Lion winner is Kim-ki Duk for ‘Pieta’

The Master officially won:

Best Director
Best Actor for both Juaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman

Other awards–
Special Jury prize to Paradise: Love
Best Actress – Hadas Yaron for ‘Fill the Void’
Best New Actor to Fabrizio Falco in ‘E Stato il Figlio” and ‘Bella Addormentata’

I wonder how that story got out. Sounds like the sort of thing the jury wouldn’t want leaked. Surely they could have given Kim Ki Duk Best Director if they preferred The Master anyway? Or maybe they felt that a Golden Lion win would mean more to Pieta whereas The Master perhaps doesn’t need such a high-profile award to boost its visibility.

Is it true the press booed the best actor tie? If so good for them. I hate ties.

LikeDislike

Koleś3 years ago

Anderson right now has won Best Director on all three major european festivals. What’s funnier, he’s done that with his last three movies.

LikeDislike

KMS3 years ago

Call me crazy, but it seems like the Best Film prize should go to whatever’s perceived by the majority of the jury to be the best film. It’s like those Best Albums of All Time lists that employ a rule stating that each artists can only appear once on the final list. Can The Beatles help it that they were that good? No. Can PTA help that he’s a genius with the additional talent of finding the best cast and crew to realize his vision? No. Best means best. End of story.

LikeDislike

Koleś3 years ago

And what’s wrong with a tie? Anyway, this is not exacly a tie. More like an acting award for the male ensamble, and it happens all the time on movie festivals. This reminds me that I have not seen “Things Change” in a long time. Don Ameche and Joe Mantegna (both awarded) were brilliant.

LikeDislike

hjj3 years ago

Kim-Ki Duk is an incredible filmmaker, so hopefully the PT Anderson fanboys will not hold it against him or bark about a scientologist conspiracy like they did on HR.

LikeDislike

Amanda3 years ago

Controversy and a Weinstein movie….shocking!!!

LikeDislike

brace3 years ago

there is no such a thing as the best in art.it’s all relative. The Master is recognized as great movie and that’s all that matters, not awards.

The Master just dodged a bullet – not a single winner at last year’s Venice fest went on to even score an oscar nomination. Remember the horrible Fassbender omission last year? – doesn’t look good for Phoenix/Hoffman, especially if they say naughty, naughty words.

Because in 2009, apparently, the Venice Film Festival instituted a rule that says a movie can win no more than 2 awards at their festival. This is presumably to spread the wealth around a bit. The jury had chosen The Master to win Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor, but because they can only give the film 2 awards they decided to only give it Director and Actor. Paddy M’s explanation for why they took away the Golden Lion seems as good an explanation as any, so I’ll go with the idea that they gave the Best Film award to a smaller film to boost it’s profile, because they knew Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie didn’t need it.

LikeDislike

KMS3 years ago

Brace, thanks for telling me there’s no such thing as the best in art. I wish you’d entered my life much sooner, for I’ve wandered aimlessly and riddled with confusion until now.

My point is that if the majority of the jury felt it was the film most deserving of their top prize, it should be recognized as such. Rules designed to spread the wealth are part of what’s wrong with the world today. I’m sorry, but not every kid should get a trophy just so no one feels left out. Idiotic mindset.

LikeDislike

João Mattos3 years ago

I like ties on film awards. Not so much as in David Lynch way as president of the jury in Venice*, but I think that they are pretty cool. That Golden Globe triple tie between Sigourney Weaver, Jodie Foster and Shirley McLaine is very interesting.

More cool is that PTA has a triple crown in the major three minternational film festivals, something as unusual as if he won the Golden prizes, like only Michelangelo Antonioni and Robert Altman had.

* 94 – He and his peers gave two Golden Lions and three, three Silver ones, and even supporting actress (Vanessa Redgrave) and actors awards.

Because in 2009, apparently, the Venice Film Festival instituted a rule that says a movie can win no more than 2 awards at their festival. This is presumably to spread the wealth around a bit.

Why even have awards if you’re going to chicken out on awarding one film everything it deserves? If you want to give everyone a trophy just for playing, then do that. Otherwise, “Best (insert category here)” means nothing if a film gets disqualified for being “the best” in other categories as well.

LikeDislike

steve503 years ago

“More cool is that PTA has a triple crown in the major three minternational film festivals, something as unusual as if he won the Golden prizes, like only Michelangelo Antonioni and Robert Altman had.”

That should be the big story here. PTA is in the right company with this, as he should be.

LikeDislike

Andrew S3 years ago

This is sort of silly. They wanted to give the top prize to the film so they give it to another film? I really don’t think Anderson cares. The film got acknowledged. Good for them. At least there are a bunch of interesting films in play this year.

LikeDislike

Jerry3 years ago

That’s some bullshit right there. If the Master was the jury’s pick it should have won.

LikeDislike

mecid3 years ago

I have checked Volpi Cup (best actor) awards and it seems only Fredric March have won both Volpi and Oscar.

LikeDislike

mecid3 years ago

^ for dr jekyll and mr hyde

LikeDislike

Ryman3 years ago

Is it really an honor to win the Golden Lion even though it was not the jury’s actual pick?

LikeDislike

Koleś3 years ago

Darren Aronowsky won the Golden Lion for “The Wrestler”, but there was controversy that Mickey Rourke didn’t win the Volpi Cup. That was because of the rules of the competition, and the fact that the Golden Lion winner shouldn’t win any onther major awards. I guess this year they wanted to acknowledge Anderson as well as the two actors, so they have chosen the lesser evil. Anderson does not have the top prize, but Hoffman and Phoenix got what they deserved.

If Tabu makes it anywhere near the Oscar race, it’d be a huge surprise.

LikeDislike

KMS3 years ago

That’s right, KMS. I’m sure PTA was held at gunpoint and threatened to be killed when he was casting Hoffman and Phoenix, much to his disgust. I bet he thought, “Fuck, this will probably cost me the Golden Lion. Fuck you, Michael Mann.”

LikeDislike

Koleś3 years ago

Shit, I made a mistake. The comment above is mine :).

LikeDislike

steve503 years ago

Paddy – not such a longshot if Portugal has nothing better to submit in FLF. Main categories, you’re right, of course.

LikeDislike

Simon Warrasch3 years ago

Joaquin Pheonix and Philip Seymour Hoffman both deserved more than any other Male Actor the Coppa Volpi for their stunning work in “The Master”. So both are now frontrunners for the Oscar! Joaquin for Lead Actor and Philip for Supporting Actor!

Personelly i would have given the Coppa Volpi to Maria Hofstätter for her brilliant and intensive work in “Paradise: Faith”!

@ mecid

Colin Firth also won both (Coppa Volpi and Oscar)

Coppa Volpi in 2009 for “A Single Man”
Oscar in 2011 for “The King’s Speech”

and Fredric March has won the Oscar for “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” but he has not won the Coppa Volpi for that movie! He has won the Audience Referendum Award!

Coppa Volpi in 2009 for “A Single Man”
Oscar in 2011 for “The King’s Speech””

Well if that’s the way you want to put it, there’s a load of actors and actresess that won both awards for different movies and PHS being one of them. He has an Oscar and right now a Volpi cup, same as Firth:).

I guess the closest thing to scoring both awards for the same movie is scoring both awards the same year. Sean Penn did that.

Cannes has identical rules: the winner of the Golden Palm can’t win anything else (that’s why “Amour” did not win prizes for best actor or best actress). It wasn’t that way few years ago but now it is like that. The same is in Venice for few years now. I remember that Polish press wrote that “Essential Killing” (made by Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski) won two prizes few years back (when “Somewhere” took Golden Lion) only because the director of the festival agreed. And who knows? Maybe jury decided to reward “Somewhere” because they really wanted to give Vincent Gallo Volpi Cup for best actor. The same happened this year with “The Master”. But still – I’m glad that Kim won. He’s great director and he did not win previously any main awards in Europe (and Anderson has already won – Golden Bear for “Magnolia”).
But still – IMO it’s truly awful rule that actors from the winners of the Golden Lions or Golden Palms cannot be rewarded. In Berlin it looks slightly different – recipient of the Golden Bear can also win Silver Bears for actor and actress (but nothing else – neither the award for director nor for screenplay). That’s why “Separation” could have won Golden Bear and two Silver Bears for acting last year.

Anyway it doesn’t matter how we call this one. The lesson here is that The Volpi Cup means jack shit when it comes to the oscars. I dare say more – Volpi Cup looks like a goddamn oscar kryptonite if you look at a couple of the names. Many brilliant performances that had some oscar traction, even got nominated for Globes and BAFTAs, were shot down by the Academy. Just to name a few – Liam Neeson for “Michael Collins”, Brad Pitt for “Jesse James”, Juliette Binonche for “Bleu” not to mention the biggest blooper that was not giving a nod to Fassbender.

So I’m very happy for Hoffman and Phoenix, but their oscar nod is far from being secure. If Hoffman is pushed for supporting, he will definitly score a nod. People like him, but a second oscar may seem to soon. Phoenix may still suffer from his orchestrated image change that didn’t go as well as he planned, but no doubt he’s the powerhouse of this movie and a very tallented actor. Hope he gets nominated, but I fear DDL may pose a serious threat with “Lincoln” this year. The question is – will people think three is too much? No other actor has won three times for the lead.

LikeDislike

mecid3 years ago

I think they can easily give Oscar to DDL. Because he is playing not ordinary man but the greatest person of American history.

LikeDislike

Koleś3 years ago

By that standard I say Benjamin Walker is a 100% lock for the Oscar – not only he’s playing the greatest person in American history, but he’s also slaying fucking vampires